Taylor Swift‘s fans are suspected of generating malaise for delayed airplane passengers and possibly causing migraines in concert attendees who actually wanted to hear Taylor sing. Scientists, however, at the Seismological Society of America and Caltech have proven that Swifties cause earthquakes.
While Taylor is a figurative force of nature, her fans literally are, according to researchers: They determined fans dancing and jumping during an August 2023 concert at SoFi Stadium was recorded by earthquake sensors.
Similar shaking at a Seattle show a month prior prompted scientists to gear up for a deep dive when Taylor and her army marched into Los Angeles.
The researchers say they were even able to identify a particular Taylor song just from the distinct tremors fans’ created in LA — with an accuracy of 43 out of the 45 songs Swift played.
That said, they determined that, appropriately, “Shake It Off” got the ground shaking the most, with a local magnitude of 0.851.
“Keep in mind this energy was released over a few minutes compared to a second for an earthquake of that size,” says Gabrielle Tepp of Caltech. “Based on the maximum strength of shaking, the strongest tremor was equivalent to a magnitude -2 earthquake.”